External Ties and Program Performance: A Study of Programs for Displaced Homemakers

Abstract

Appropriate relationships with external actors having important resources is usually necessary for organizations, especially "people-processing" ones providing training and placement service& The author sought to determine the effects of extraorganizational ties by studying programs for displaced homemakers in Kentucky, interviewing coordinators of 19 programs in February and March 1983, and examining management information system data on clients. The findings indicate that rates of job placement and wage levels for clients were not much affected by the number, frequency, and regularity of external ties, were positively affected by ties with advisory boards with diverse memberships, were positively affected by ties with advisory board members with business resources, but were negatively affected by ties with organizations offering nonbusiness resources The author concludes that the nature of the external actors with whom organizations establish ties has an impact on program success.

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